Get up off the bench for the first time, stroll onto the floor, and bury a three-pointer from the corner.
It was that kind of night for Matt Turner.
The red-shirt junior guard has been slow to get back into the swing of things for the Boston University men’s basketball team after missing most of last year with an injured shoulder. But Turner picked a perfect time to break out.
With his team in a dogfight down the stretch last night at Harvard University, Turner tied the game three times in the second half, and scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the second frame to help the Terriers pull away from the feisty Crimson.
‘I kind of got down on myself a little bit at the beginning of the year,’ Turner said Tuesday night. ‘Coach kept telling me just to play up to my potential and make plays. That’s what I did tonight and it really felt good.’
Turner, who hit three more three-pointers after that first touch, struggled somewhat in the first half only to explode in the second. He scored 11 straight at one point late in the second half. Turner couldn’t miss, and his teammates knew it, feeding him the ball and letting him go to work. Junior forward Ryan Butt set at least two screens at the top of the arc to get Turner clean looks at the hoop.
‘When you make shots, that changes everything,’ said BU Coach Dennis Wolff. ‘We’ve been fighting hard on defense the whole year and we haven’t shot the ball well from the outside. Matt shot well, and that changed the complexion [of the game].’
After bowing out of a game against the College of the Holy Cross last season with a separated shoulder, Turner was forced to watch in street clothes as the Terriers made their NCAA Tournament run. More than a year later, it was Turner who single-handedly pulled the Terriers out of a four-point deficit with three straight pull-up jumpers tonight.
‘That’s the first time I really felt energized and into the game,’ Turner said.
Turner’s partner in crime during BU’s second half surge was senior and fellow captain Billy Collins. The duo scored 17 of BU’s last 19 points in the final 5:29 to put the game away. After Turner scored his 11 in a row, Collins poured in six straight on three consecutive dunk attempts. He slammed down one on a baseline drive, another when he flew over the defenders for a putback, and nailed two free throws after being fouled on his way to the rim for another slam.
‘I don’t think I have to say a whole lot to Matt. Matt just made a bunch of good plays,’ Wolff said when asked about the second half Turner and Collins run or any halftime pep talk that inspired it.
After starting slowly this season, Turner said he and his teammates have started to find the offensive games to match their already-impressive defensive showings.
‘We were just attacking the defense,’ he said. ‘My game is to be aggressive, and if I’m not being aggressive then I’m not as effective as I need to be. And I saw openings. We just had to stick to it and stay confident in ourselves and make plays. We haven’t been playing that great on offense yet this year and we have a lot of guys that could play a lot better.’
After using Turner sparingly against Stanford University in the opener, Wolff seems to think his star guard has found his stroke.
‘Matt got off to a good start in this game,’ Wolff said. ‘Matt played very well up at Dartmouth [College] Saturday night and he got off to a good start [tonight], got a couple of fouls, and he just played the way he’s capable of playing.’
Obviously, nights like this won’t always come for Turner. But he has never been one to shy away from an open shot, or a contested one for that matter, and he knows that his yearlong comeback is still not over.
‘I’ve got confidence in myself to make plays, and my confidence is starting to grow,’ he said. ‘Like Coach said, I’m trying to work my way back into it. With every game I expect myself to get a little better and get more into the game and get more confidence in myself, and those type of plays will come.’